School districts across Spokane County, including Cheney and Medical Lake, are encouraging families to register their children for kindergarten for the 2016-17 school year.
Districts are working with Excelerate Spokane, an organization partnering with Spokane County United Way, which focuses on educational opportunity gaps in the county.
One of Excelerate Success’ initiatives is “High Five for Kindergarten,” which emphasizes helping families make sure their child is prepared for kindergarten. Amy McGreevy, Excelerate Success executive director, said early registration for kindergarten is just one piece of the initiative.
Excelerate Success works to help provide parents, relatives and other childcare providers the information and resources they need to help prepare their child for kindergarten, as well as connect them to the schools. She added that businesses are also partnering with Excelerate Success to prepare kindergarten readiness kits for families.
Excelerate Success has identified four areas in Spokane County, one being Airway Heights, where they are working with community centers, libraries and local non-profit organizations to put on kindergarten readiness events.
“The idea is let’s as a community take some responsibility and not put all of that pressure on teachers and parents,” McGreevy said. “As businesses, as libraries, as a community we have a responsibility to pay attention to whether a child is healthy, whether they are being played with and talked to and communities make sure parents have the information they need.”
McGreevy noted the program has had great support from Spokane and Cheney school districts, who have helped coordinate the effort.
The organization has also collaborated with the districts to distribute Audrey Penn’s “The Kissing Hand, a children’s book about a young raccoon named Chester, who is nervous about going to school. Chester’s mother kisses his palm and assures him that she will be with him when he goes off to school.
The book is based off a ritual where a mother raccoon places its face on its baby’s paw. The baby can later recall its mother’s scent by placing its paw to their face.
According to McGreevy the book is about the transition and anxiousness between a parent and child for when “they are separating for that new experience of going to school.”
“The book itself helps facilitate the conversation between a parent and a child, or a family member and a child in what we can do to cope with that anxiousness,” McGreevy said. “It’s trying to help a family walk through the resiliency you need when you separate.”
Excelerate Success is encouraging a county-wide read of “The Kissing Hand,” and through a partnership with Scholastic Books, purchased 5,493 copies of the book for schools across Spokane County, including 400 copies for Cheney district and 160 for Medical Lake.
In addition to encouraging families to read “The Kissing Hand,” schools will provide students with take-home activities based on the book’s themes.
“Spokane County and Spokane libraries also integrated themes from the books into their activities,” McGreevy said.
As for her goal of the initiative, McGreevy said she wants to make sure children have a good experience at school early on.
“Also for parents to have access and ask questions they have about things they don’t know,” McGreevy said. “I also want parents to relax and be a part of the experience, to build a relationship with the schools and their teachers.”
For more information on Excelerate Success visit http://www.exceleratesuccess.org/.
Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].
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